{"id":247,"date":"2014-03-01T22:02:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T22:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=247"},"modified":"2016-03-25T02:49:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T02:49:21","slug":"behind-short-story-uprisings-cap-dantibes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Behind: “Uprisings at Cap d’Antibes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing like a good, old-school\u00a0revolution to get a story going. Great or small, a lightning coup or decades in the making, needed change or epic tragedy. Revolution, for better\u00a0or worse,\u00a0is essentially human.<\/p>\n

The idea of a revolution wriggled into my brain some time back. In my fiction usually a form of natural order wins out, often crushing a too-bold POV. Later I began wondering about the true insurgent. Sometimes the natural order wins out only because good hearts fight for it.<\/p>\n

One idea grabbed me. Not just\u00a0any revolution but the<\/em> Revolution. Socialism turned to its extreme.\u00a0Far too big a canvas for short fiction, unless a very personal uprising set against a revolutionary backdrop. And so, at a fictional tennis academy in\u00a0the glimmering Cote d\u2019Azur, a revolution begins.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m proud to announce my unabashed romp\u00a0\u201cUprisings at Cap d\u2019Antibes\u201d is included with other terrific writing in Lowestoft Chronicle<\/i> #17<\/a>. It\u2019s my second contribution to Lowestoft, <\/i>after last year’s\u00a0“La Upsell<\/a>.” If you\u2019re not reading Lowestoft<\/i>, you should, but only if if you love to laugh through far-flung\u00a0(mis)adventures. Consistently a wonderful read.<\/p>\n

Back to the revolution. “Uprisings” goes back to 2011 brainstorming, insurgents overthrowing a neighborhood association. Say it was a gated community,\u00a0and the association has become\u00a0bloated and under the thumb of a busybody who frets over\u00a0nits like shrub height.\u00a0I even wrote a few thousand words of something called \u201cMay Day.” The main character came, a proto-Dasha freaked out over the revolution\u2019s growing interest in her tennis star daughter when the new boss proved worse than the old boss. The story itself\u00a0never took off,\u00a0\u00a0a too-easy premise and riddled with\u00a0darlings and design flaws. Point is, the kernel stuck, filed\u00a0under Good Try.<\/p>\n

Last year the idea came back in fits and starts. The opening scene to “May Day” was good, so much\u00a0so that it bothered me not knowing how\u00a0things played out for Dasha. The \u201cA Ha!\u201d finally came with seeing the revolution didn\u2019t have to occur in a neighborhood. It could happen somewhere out of Dasha\u2019s element or somewhere she wanted anything but instability. A place. A tennis academy. In France<\/a>.\u00a0The Riviera. Feliks the\u00a0uber-wealthy ex-pro wouldn\u2019t pick the gloomy north to set up shop. Make it Antibes, as swank as it gets, minutes from Cannes.<\/p>\n

So.\u00a0A revolution.\u00a0Sergei the son and true believer ousts dad Feliks the\u00a0communist icon turned capitalist mogul. But the story is Dasha\u2019s<\/em> revolution. Unlike the Karperovs, gentle mom Dasha\u00a0wants a closer relationship with daughter Hailey (parallelism alert!). She’s a happy second fiddle to her banker hubbie (up parallelism alert level to Orange!) With some massaging, the\u00a0story fell into line: Dasha must rise up (Parallelism alert code red!). Against Sergei, who wants to claim Hailey as his poster child. Against her jackass husband, who wants tennis\u00a0stardom for Hailey at any price. Against her meek self, who thought she wanted to\u00a0breeze through life\u00a0as a socialite and in the reflected glory of a phenom daughter.<\/p>\n

I hope readers take to Dasha. She was fun to\u00a0write,\u00a0somebody you\u2019d welcome at a dinner party table. Loving, well-intentioned, wry, but quick to shelther inside\u00a0her privileged\u00a0lifestyle. Writing Feliks was a hoot. A man of faded but not lost capability, from whom no combination of words seemed over-the-top. And Hailey is way, way up there among characters I’m blessed to have found me. Machine-focused,\u00a0except for when she glances needfully at\u00a0mom in the bleachers. From the mouth of this predatory child could come one-liners and an insensitivity to the contradictions and cruelties around her. She is the monster Tom and Dasha have made. Dasha and Hailey’s\u00a0mother-daughter moment–after all that it took them to get there–sticks with me as the story’s best moment, maybe poignant in its way. The scene surprised me writing it.<\/p>\n

Not to instigate, but I hope folks check out Dasha and her uprising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing like a good, old-school\u00a0revolution to get a story going. Great or small, a lightning coup or decades in the making, needed change or epic tragedy. Revolution, for better\u00a0or worse,\u00a0is essentially human. The idea of a revolution wriggled into my brain some time back. In my fiction usually a form of natural order wins… Continue reading Behind: “Uprisings at Cap d’Antibes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,92,6,7],"tags":[65,97,3,5],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-short-stories","category-this-whole-writing-thing","category-travel","tag-behind-the-story","tag-france","tag-short-stories","tag-writing","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3CG0W-3Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":72,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=72","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":0},"title":"Behind: “The Carcassonne Dream”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"October 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It is winter. Christmas Eve 2011, and Writer Guy rides the train to Arles. Second class. The South of France trundles by outside, salt flats and olive\u00a0trees,\u00a0the mountainside and harbor towns of the Mediterranean coast. I sip my Coca-Cola Lite and return to my laptop. For in France the writing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "France"","block_context":{"text":"France","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2572,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=2572","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":1},"title":"2024 So Far:","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"March 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The new year isn't new anymore. 2024 has had some haps. Here's a few things going on, writing-wise. Murder, Neat A few years ago, the Sleuthsayers blog collective set out on a plan. An anthology plan. The Sleuthsayers ranks includes a few dozen terrific writers all with a love for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Murder-Neat-2024-Sleuthsayers-1-682x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=436","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":2},"title":"Behind: “Death or Taxes”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"August 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Behind the Writing Scenes of \"Death or Taxes,\" published in the July '14 issue of Mysterical-E. Summer 2011: it was that purplish state of dawn.\u00a0My eyes flew open.\u00a0My breath caught in my throat. Inspiration had come. It was ready to bubble out, like it or not. And I liked it.\u00a0In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=36","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":3},"title":"Behind the Short Story: “First of a Fine Spectacle”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"October 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm honored\u00a0that my\u00a0short story\u00a0\/ high farce\u00a0\"First of a Fine Spectacle\" was selected for Pure Slush No. 7, Catherine refracted. I'm a history buff. But I've not had much interest writing historical fiction. Or flash fiction. So\u00a0historical flash? What drew me was the collection's theme: Catherine the Great. A canvas rife\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Humor"","block_context":{"text":"Humor","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":594,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=594","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":4},"title":"Behind: “First Rodeo”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"May 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you were around a century or so ago, and you\u00a0knew him well, you might call him Bill. On a legal document, William Sidney Porter. If you read any of his 300+ published stories, you knew him by his pen name:\u00a0O. Henry.\u00a0The name now commands a prestigious\u00a0short story\u00a0award, but more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Short Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Short Stories","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=92"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":968,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=968","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":5},"title":"Derringer-ered!","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"April 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm incredibly proud\u00a0 that last year's\u00a0\"The Cumberland Package\"\u00a0(AHMM, May 2016) has been named a finalist for the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Derringer Awards.\u00a0 I mean, like busting-at-seams proud. Of being named, because the crime\u00a0space these days is terrific in\u00a0its voice\u00a0and depth. The\u00a0stuff that leaves me vibrating explores\u00a0in stark terms\u00a0human nature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}